The City of San Rafael is reviewing possible bans on plastic bags and expanded polystyrene (eps) containers, and will discuss the ordinances during a study session next month.

A proposed bag ordinance would be modeled after the Marin County ordinance, which bans plastic bags and requires a 5 cent price requirement on paper bags. Marin County won in trial court against the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition (STPBC) last year. Read more about the ruling on our website. STPBC has appealed this decision.

In Marin County, Fairfax remains the only city with a bag ban. Other Marin County municipalities, according to Independent Journal, seem to be waiting on court’s decision before moving forward. STPBC is threatening to sue any County jurisdictions that move forward before the appellate court makes a ruling.

However, more local bag bans are being adopted throughout the state, despite STPBC’s most outrageous efforts to stop them. 40 cities and counties are now covered under a single-use bag ordinance, which makes up 16% of California’s population. CAW projects this amount to increase by at least an additional 10% by the end of 2012. See the full list on our website.

We hope that the City Council sees the growing trend of adopted ordinances as well as the victories for bag bans in the court systems, and decides to move ahead with both ordinances, rather than waiting for the apellate ruling.

The San Rafael study session takes place on March 5 at 6:30 pm at the Council Chambers in the San Rafael City Hall (1400 Fifth Avenue, San Rafael CA). To contact your San Rafael City Council Members in support, or to attend the study session and see the agenda, visit the Council website.